In connection with my previous post about Low German I would like to continue with another dialect of German: Schwyzerdütsch or Schweizerdeutsch (Swiss German). Once more I copied and pasted some passages of a Wikipedia site. Below you can find one and the same text in Swiss German, High German, and English. In case, that you are only interested in its content you could skip the Swiss and High German versions and begin immediately with the English version.

For a better flow of reading I arranged the texts according to language. When I translated the Swiss German text into High German and English I made sure to translate it sentence by sentence, as close as possible, so that you have the opportunity to compare between Swiss and High German in each sentence and that you have the content in English available.

English

Swiss German is a collective name for all those Alemannic dialects, which are spoken in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. In his book What is actually Swiss German? Arthur Baur already defines in the first sentence that Swiss German is the vernacular, which is generally applicable to the Swiss Confederation. It says it is the direct continuation of the dialect, which German immigrants brought along with them, as they settled down in Switzerland.

The difference between Swiss German and the other Alemannic dialects is not a difference in the language system (syntax) but in language use (pragmatics). The Swiss German dialect does not distinguish from other German dialects by having distinct features or isoglosses that separates them from other dialects but has the distinction by being used, almost bar none, as the one and only vernacular, while in the rest of the German speaking area, aside from the dialects, also Standard German is spoken. One consequence of that is, that Swiss German is divided sharply from Standard German, without there being any intermediate forms. In the few situations in which it is switched to the standard language, the switches occur intentionally and are often made the subject of discussion.

That Swiss German does not distinguish through distinct features in the language system is indisputed in linguistics. Linguists distinguish between hundreds of Swiss German dialects. The low mobility of the people until the beginning of the 20th century lead up to that the dialects do partly distinguish so much so that sometimes even Swiss people have communication problems among themselves, too. So, Walliser German, as the southernmost extreme, is decisivly distinguishable from the midland dialects. Aside from the different pronunciations, the terms for plants, tools, agriculatural stuff and the like are in particular regionally very different.

I do not know if you could recognize a difference between the High Swiss German from above and the Swiss German of Wallis below, but I would like to give you a deeper insight into Swiss German. I can tell that it was quite a challenge for me to translate the following passages.

Walliser German is a dialect of the German Swiss in the canton Wallis and belongs to the Highest Alemannic German dialect group. Walliser German does not only have its own grammar, it also has its own syntax and quite a number of vocabularies, of which many are borrowed from Italian. Because of that it is for speakers of High German difficult to understand.

Each village used to have its own dialect, so that one could discern through the language, from where the other one came from. But because of the vigorous mixing the differences are disappearing. Walliser German has developed since then; nevertheless, a Wallis is still not that easy to understand.

As already mentioned Swiss German differs from High German by being used as an official language in Switzerland, that is, it is even to be heared on radio and television transmission, whereas in Germany all radio and television programs are usually broadcasted in High German.

After all, Swiss German came up to be a wholly new variety of German than being only a mere dialect, which is basically comparable to the different standard Englishes, that is, American, British, Australian, and Canadian English). Hence, the standard language of Switzerland is also referred to as Swiss High German.

I looked a Swiss German television program out for you to give you the chance to listen to it. If you do not understand anything DO NOT WORRY! I do also have severe difficulties to understand it.

Hello everybody!
I studied English and American Studies, Communication Science, and Political Science at the University of Greifswald. Since I have been learning English as a second language myself for almost 20 years now I know how difficult it is to learn a language other than your native one. Thus, I am always willing to keep my explanations about German grammar comprehensible and short. Further, I am inclined to encourage you to speak German in every situation.
Regards,
Sandra

Comments:

This is all great stuff. I find it very interesting that the Swiss seem to be very lingiustically aware. The same cannot be said of Scotland (my home country) wherein a debate has been raging over the status of the Scots langauge (or dialect depending on which side you find yourself). Incidently this is not to be confused with Scots Gaelic-a minority langauge spoken in the north west.

Scots has been heavily oppressed over the past 300 years or so and as a result most speaker believe they are simply speaking bad english, which is not the case. The most hilarious example of this is on the Scottish regional news where the presenters simultaneously try to suppress and project their Scottish accents and end up inventing a dialect of of its own.

As a Swiss native and a studied Linguist (not that that matters much in this case) I am more and more inclined to believe that Swiss German is, in fact, not just a dialect of German. If you disregard the differences in vocabulary there are still some interesting differences in grammar. For example:
Swiss German requires a definite article in front of first names (e.g. d’Susi, de Hans, etc.). German does not allow such a thing (and neither do most languages).
Swiss German also lacks different past tenses. It only has the present perfect, where as German also has simple past and past perfect.

And I’ve always thought that if Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are considered separate languages, so should Swiss German be considered different from German. But maybe that’s just my patriotism speaking…